Integrative and conjugative elements and their hosts: composition, distribution and organization.

ABSTRACT: Conjugation of single-stranded DNA drives horizontal gene transfer between bacteria and was widely studied in conjugative plasmids. The organization and function of integrative and conjugative elements (ICE), even if they are more abundant, was only studied in a few model systems. Comparative genomics of ICE has been precluded by the difficulty in finding and delimiting these elements. Here, we present the results of a method that circumvents these problems by requiring only the identification of the conjugation genes and the species' pan-genome. We delimited 200 ICEs and this allowed the first large-scale characterization of these elements. We quantified the presence in ICEs of a wide set of functions associated with the biology of mobile genetic elements, including some that are typicall

SUBMITTER: Cury J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5587801 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature